The subject matter described herein relates to communication networks, and more particularly to offboard communications at airport terminals. Vehicles such as commercial air, marine and land vehicles may include one or more performance monitoring systems that record data regarding various aspects of vehicle operation and performance. For example, the performance data may include a record of performance events that occur during the operation of the vehicle. The performance monitoring system may collect data and report the data to a remote system. Maintenance needs for the vehicle may be determined from the data.
For example, an aircraft may include one or more central maintenance computer(s) (CMC) and/or an aircraft condition monitoring system (ACMS). The central maintenance computer collects, consolidates and reports performance data for the components of the air vehicle. Certain maintenance messages are associated with one or more types of performance data, and are stored in the CMC. When the CMC receives performance data, it analyzes the data to determine if the received data meets the criteria associated with the maintenance messages. An ACMS also collects, monitors, records and reports real-time aircraft system data. For example, the data collected by the ACMS is used to perform cabin pressure and temperature monitoring, hard landing detection, flight crew monitoring, and engine monitoring in addition to many other aircraft performance functions. The reported data may be utilized to analyze aircraft performance and trends in aircraft performance, report significant flight events, and troubleshoot faults.
Data collected and generated by ACMS may be downloaded from the aircraft to a ground-based computer system while the plane is being serviced at a gate. Similarly, data generated by one or more ground-based systems may be uploaded to the aircraft while the plane is being serviced at a gate. Accordingly, systems and methods to download data from and upload data to an aircraft may find utility.